RPAGF Chapter 163 Can't even boil water?
Chapter 163 Can't even boil water?
He blushed and closed his eyes, letting the little girl apply the medicine for him.
Lin Xiaotang's small hands were quick and nimble. She quickly finished applying the medicine to Xiao Jiu's arms and legs, and then carefully applied it to the wound on his back. Only his chest was left untreated. She handed the medicine to Xiao Jiu and said, "You can reach the front, so apply it yourself."
As for the area on his buttocks, if he can't apply the ointment, then he'll just have to endure the pain.
Xiao Jiu looked down at himself; his clothes were tattered, and he smelled terrible. He couldn't help but feel disgusted with himself.
Two more days passed, and all the medicine he had gotten from the clinic was finished. Xiao Jiu's wounds had all scabbed over and were no longer painful. He slowly got up, and apart from his two legs, which were still a little sore from being kicked so hard by Granny Chen, everything else was completely healed.
After dinner, Lin Xiaotang went into the kitchen to prepare braised pig's trotters. Xiao Jiu glanced at her secretly before blushing and speaking.
"Um, I want to take a bath. Could you heat up the bathwater for me?"
Lin Xiaotang lifted her eyelids and glanced sideways at Xiao Jiu, her eyes filled with disbelief.
“We don’t have that many rules in our house. You don’t need to call me Miss or Master, but you also can’t call me ‘that’. My name is Lin Xiaotang, you can just call me Xiaotang. Also, now that you can move around freely, you have to boil your own water if you want to take a bath. I took care of you before because you were injured, but I won’t serve you forever, understand?”
Xiao Jiu frowned slightly, the blush on his face gradually fading, and he awkwardly said, "I don't know how to boil water."
What the hell?
You can't even boil water?
Is this the down-on-his-luck young master from some bankrupt wealthy family who was sold to a brokerage firm and bought by her and her father?
She closed her eyes, trying to appear kind and gentle. "It's okay if you don't know how to boil water, I'll teach you."
Xiao Jiu didn't expect that as soon as his injuries healed, the little girl couldn't wait to make him do chores.
He thought to himself, "This little girl is really not stupid."
Lin Xiaotang instructed Xiao Jiu, "The pots used for cooking on this stove are clean, but you have to add water and wash them again every time you use them. Add a ladle of water, use a loofah to dip it in the water and wash the pot, then use the ladle to scoop out all the water. You need to add half a pot of water to boil for bathing."
Xiao Jiu stared at the big iron pot. Despite his reluctance, he had to admit that he was indeed a servant, a servant bought by Xiao Tang and her father. If Xiao Tang and her father hadn't bought him, who knew how Chen Pozi would have abused him? Let alone taking him to see a doctor and applying medicine, even if Chen Pozi gave him a meal after beating him, it would be considered that Chen Pozi was kind-hearted.
There was no other way; if she didn't work, Xiaotang might have her father sell her back.
So he picked up the ladle from the bucket and, as Xiaotang had instructed, added a ladleful of water to the iron pot. However, after searching around, he couldn't find the loofah sponge that Xiaotang had mentioned.
"Xiao Tang, where is the loofah sponge?"
Lin Xiaotang stared at Xiao Jiu as if she were looking at a ghost. Could she have really bought a down-on-his-luck young master?
How can a poor family's child not even recognize a loofah sponge?
Wait... no, none of her uncles from the Shen family and Shen Changyan, who was the same age as her, recognized loofah sponges because her stepmother never let them into the kitchen to cook; they were a bunch of people who just ate rice with their hands in their pockets.
So, Xiao Jiu might not necessarily be a down-on-his-luck young master. Maybe he's just a kid from an ordinary family in the county. But even the poorest families in the county have kids who've seen more of the world than kids from the village. It's understandable that he's fearless, stubborn, and can endure being hurt.
She sighed inwardly, picked up the loofah sponge that was already on the stove, and handed it to Xiao Jiu.
"This is the loofah sponge, remember that."
Xiao Jiu's face suddenly flushed red, and she said somewhat awkwardly, "Yes, I've got it."
After cleaning the pot as Xiaotang instructed, he encountered another problem when trying to light the firewood. No matter how he tried, the dry wood wouldn't ignite, and the room was filled with smoky, choking smoke.
"Cough cough... Xiao Tang, I can't light it."
Lin Xiaotang said patiently, "It's okay, I'll teach you."
She took out the two pieces of firewood that Xiao Jiu had stuffed into the stove, grabbed a handful of soft dry grass and put it in. She lit the fire with the grass first, and only added the firewood when the fire got bigger. The firewood she put in first was thin, and only after the thin firewood was burning did she slowly add the thicker firewood into the stove.
She turned to look at Xiao Jiu, who looked surprised, and asked, "Did you understand the order?"
Xiao Jiu nodded. He was now starting to admire the little girl in front of him. She knew so much at such a young age. She was so skilled at things that seemed very simple to him but were actually very difficult to do. It was obvious that she had gained experience from burning fires many times.
Compared to her, I feel like a useless piece of trash, unable to do anything.
He blushed even more and said somewhat embarrassedly, "This is my first time doing this, but I will learn well."
Lin Xiaotang nodded, thinking to herself that as long as he was willing to learn and work, then she and her father hadn't made a mistake in buying him, and the deal was still worthwhile.
"It's alright, you can learn slowly later. Just watch the fire. Once this batch of firewood is burned out, the water will be almost boiling. In a bit, add some cool water to the large wooden basin. Once it's not too hot, you can wash yourself. However, since your wounds have just scabbed over, just wipe them gently with a handkerchief. Don't rub off the scabs, or they'll leave scars."
After giving Xiao Jiu her instructions, she went out of the kitchen and lit fires in several huge iron pots placed against the wall in the yard to start braising pig's trotters.
In the kitchen, Xiao Jiu boiled water but couldn't find a basin for bathing or any clean clothes. Feeling extremely embarrassed, he went out with a red face and walked to Xiao Tang's side, but stammered when he spoke.
"Um, Xiaotang, I..."
Lin Xiaotang painstakingly stirred all the large pots with a big spoon before turning to look at Xiao Jiu.
"Can't find anything again?"
"A bath tub, a towel, and more..."
Lin Xiaotang suddenly realized and slapped her forehead. "Oh no, I forgot to find it for you. Wait here."
She immediately went to the small room where miscellaneous items were stored and found the large wooden tub her father used for bathing.
After putting her youngest daughter to sleep, Liu heard a noise and came out. She saw her daughter carrying out the large wooden tub her husband used for bathing and asked what was wrong.
"Tang'er, it's so late, what are you doing moving this?"
“Mom, he can move now and wants to take a bath. I’ll find Dad’s bath tub for him. He doesn’t have any clean clothes. Why don’t you find a set of Dad’s clothes for him to wear temporarily, and then let him change back into his new clothes once you’ve finished making them?”
Liu nodded. "Alright, that's all we can do for now. Jiu'er is all dirty. He's been with us for several days and hasn't had a bath yet. He's not a little boy anymore, so it's not good for me to help him wash. We'll have to wait until he's better so he can wash himself. I'll get him a set of your father's clothes right now."
She went back into the house and took out the clothes she had washed and folded for her husband, and also handed a clean cotton handkerchief to her daughter.
"Hurry up and take it to him. I'll go check on the braised pig's trotters in the yard."
Lin Xiaotang put the clothes and handkerchief into a large basin, then carried the basin back to the kitchen with great effort. Xiao Jiu was standing at the kitchen door, and seeing that she was struggling to carry it, she immediately reached out and took it from her.
"let me."
He carried the large wooden basin back to the kitchen and tried to pour hot water himself with a ladle, but Lin Xiaotang stopped him.
"You don't even know this basic common sense? It's a good thing that my dad and I bought you. If you had been bought by a wealthy family and worked like this, you would have been scolded eight hundred times a day!"